youtube-seduced into watching irving younger’s ‘ten commandments of cross-examination’: the part i loved best was where he talks about meeting the historian sir john wheeler-bennett (who was the official british observer at the nuremberg trials.)

“perhaps the most interesting couple of hours was the cross-examination of hermann goering. […] the chief prosecutor for each of the four allied nations conducted the cross-examination. sir john is not a lawyer and said he had no opinion on the technical adequacy of the cross-examination, but he was struck by how vividly each one mirrored the national stereotype. it seemed to him that [the american] was occasionally brilliant but frequently got into trouble, and when he got into trouble it was because he was not prepared. the british prosecutor restricted himself exclusively to bailing the american out of trouble and did nothing else. the french prosecutor was charming but wholly incompetent. but best of all was the russian prosecutor. that russian was like a twenty ton heavy tank. once it got clanged up and going it moved inexorably forward and nothing on earth could stop him.”